Fake

Even though a second is still measured as the duration of 9 192 631 770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the caesium 133 atom, we seem to invest less time on fraud and fake checks, yet place more trust in automating ourselves to death.

And yes, on the internet nobody knows you’re a dog, a highly popularized cartoon turned meme about privacy and anonymity; it still amazes me how much money, time and trust advertisers throw at the dogs of ad tech, who are so programmaticly lost that even the ANA is unaware of their banner placements.

So, ANA, I have a question for you: If the fucking Association of National Advertisers can’t figure out where their fucking advertising is running, how the fuck is anyone else supposed to? (Sorry for the triple f-bombs but under the circumstances they felt awfully good.)

A bit ironic that Microsoft and PWC support the #RebootingWebOfTrust Design workshop in Paris tomorrow and you can pay up to 750 Euros without submissions, albeit, the topic is relevant and here’s an overview of submitted papers.

The Web of Trust. It’s a buzzword for a new model of decentralized identity. However, it’s also a phrase that dates back almost twenty-five years and has been heavily overloaded with meaning during that time. The classic definition of Web of Trust derives from PGP, but the top Google results refer to a website reputation rating system created by a Finnish internet company. Meanwhile, some use it as a big tent that includes identity authentication and verfication, certificate validation, and reputation assesment, while the vibrant blockchain community is also drawing new attention to the classic concept.

Thanks to our personalized, digital filter bubbles, the need to build trust outside of walled gardens akin to iTunes or Facebook is pertinent in meat space as well. Whether it’s text walking lanes, lack of empathy or fake perfectification on social channels, trust needs some serious rebooting on a couple of fronts. I have reboot hope, even for good old journalism; the NYT has seen digital subscribers soar since the election and the stock is worth a peek.